INTASC+Standard+04

**INTASC Standard 4** The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.


 * Specific Category of Standard 4**


 * **INTASC.4.B** || K: The teacher understands principles and techniques, along with advantages and limitations, associated with various instructional strategies (e.g. cooperative learning, direct instruction, discovery learning, whole group discussion, independent study, interdisciplinary instruction). ||

**Understanding Sentence** The teacher understands and engages in different instructional strategies to help develop skills across all areas.


 * Artifacts**


 * //Differentiated Lesson Plan//


 * Reflect**

The artifact for Standard 4 is an Interdisciplinary Lesson Plan I created with a group in my Foundations of Teaching and Learning class. This artifact fully represents INTASC Standard 4.B.K. The lesson we put together on Outer Space not only is an interdisciplinary lesson going across Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Science, and Art, but within each subject the lesson is differentiated into three levels (below average, average, and higher than average). It is vital to classroom to have lessons that connect all the subject areas because it makes the learning more relevant and the information is that much easier to remember. In an interdisciplinary lesson students recall stuff they learn the before to apply it to what they are using in a different subject are. So they may be applying what they learned in a Social Studies lesson to a Language Arts lesson by writing a story about it or to an Art lesson by drawing or painting a picture. Any way you look at it an interdisciplinary lesson gives students the opportunity to bring one topic through all the subjects and really get to know the material or topic. Differentiation is also important because it take into account that not all children learn at the same speeds or that they are even at the same stage in learning a topic like reading or multiplication. This type of individualizing education helps students to have an opportunity to be successful and grow. Not everyone is at the same stage so a one size fits all approach doesn’t work.


 * Project**

This artifact represents how I will approach every lesson. I will differentiate when possible and I will integrate interdisciplinary lessons into my curriculum when appropriate. I want my students to have valuable and worthwhile experiences in the classroom that are relevant to where they are developmentally. By differentiating I will not only be giving my students opportunities to grow from where they really are instead of where the state says they “should be”, it will also give students less opportunities to become behavior problems. Classrooms where there is no differentiation have children who are not challenged enough, bored, and student who are too challenged, frustrated, which means instead of doing the work they find other ways to amuse themselves which mean more acting up and getting into trouble. I will also make interdisciplinary lessons a part of my classroom. By creating interdisciplinary lessons I will be creating lessons which build better environments for learning. When you have a interdisciplinary lesson you are bring a topic full circle and really discovering everything you can about a topic, and while I realize that not all subject matter can be brought to students in that format I will try to find a way for every topic to be put into this type of lesson.